Sammy In Motion

Hi All!

Well, it is FINALLY Thursday! It has been a LONG week for such a short week! Things have been going on at work which haven't made me too happy - even though Linda has been coming in a couple times a week! YEAH! Anyway . . . . I thought I would show you some pictures of one of my favorite dogs, Sammy.

Sammy is my parents' dog and he is just a bundle of energy. One of his favorite things to do is to chase his ball around the yard. It is such fun to watch, I thought I would let you in on the fun!

Dad started this play session by tossing the ball to Sammy on the deck. Sammy got right into action and bounced the ball back to Dad. Pretty impressive when you realize that Sammy only has one eye!

He likes doing this and barks and "smiles" and jumps for that ball! However, the real fun starts when Sammy gets down in the yard! Dad throws the ball and Sammy chases after it rolling the ball with his nose all over the yard. Occasionally, he manages to stop the ball and get up on top of it to try to bite it.

Here is a blurry action shot of Sammy chasing his ball. He has such fun!

Sammy has gotten the ball and is now trying to bite it. Somehow the whole biting thing just never works but Sammy still tries and still has fun!

Isn't Sammy a cutie?

Okay - I need to vent just a little bit about class. If you don't want to "hear it" just skip the next couple of paragraphs, okay?

As you might know, I am in ASL (American Sign Language) 4. This is a high level class and is only for people who are serious about ASL and probably interpreting. The class is supposed to move quickly and cover a lot of material including the linguistics of ASL (that is the study of the language - how it works, etc.). On the first day of class Henry, our teacher, told the class that it was a serious class and that he expected a lot from us in the class. He came right out and said that if you weren't serious about the class that you should drop it. Pretty clear, right?

Well, apparently, two member of our class didn't get the "hint." There is a man and a woman in class who just don't get it. One of the "cardinal rules" in ASL classes is that you DON'T talk (or "voice" in ASL talk). You are expected to communicate only in ASL all the time unless there is some serious reason you need to talk (like an emergency, etc.). Also, it is considered very, very rude to voice in front of Deaf people if you know ASL since they are not able to hear you and can not join in the conversation.

This man - we will call him New Mexico- and this woman - we will call her Gabby - they both blatantly break both the "cardinal rule" and are extremely rude. They constantly voice in class both when they are signing and when they aren't.

This is sooooo distracting for the rest of us who are trying to seriously work on ASL. It is hard to concentrate on sign language when you are hearing English - after all, they are two different languages! Imagine trying to speak Spanish to someone who is speaking English to you - not easy OR fun!

So we have New Mexico and Gabby both talking in class. Annoying. Now - add this to the mix. We had an assignment due last night. We have known about it since the first night of class and have had two weeks to work on it. The project involved watching a video in ASL and voicing it. We also had to "interpret" what the voicer said. Confusing? Let me try to make it clearer.

On a video screen a video is running of a woman signing a story in ASL. One student watches the video and voices what the woman is signing. Another student stands with his/her back to the video screen and signs what the voicing student is saying. Is that as clear as mud?

Anyway - the assignment wasn't easy. We all knew that. We all knew what it would involve. We all had two weeks to prepare. Of the seven members of the class, three of us (including me) were not in class at all last week (due to illness for two people and my visit to Ohio). However, the three of us all still managed to prepare for the assignment. New Mexico and Gabby? They did NOT prepare.

They were the first pair to voice and interpret and let me tell you - it was just plain sad! They didn't know the story and did horribly. Then the excuses started rolling. "I was nervous." "I have never interpreted before." "I can normally do better - I don't know what is wrong with me tonight." "That is the worst that I have done in my entire life."

Blah, blah, blah!

No one in the class has interpreted before. Everyone was nervous! These two just made me plain mad. In fact, the entire class was mad!

My friend C and I were the second pair to do the project and we, while making our fair share of mistakes, blew New Mexico and Gabby out of the water. WE had prepared! WE take the class seriously! WE don't waste time in class voicing and asking questions that aren't on topic. WE seriously wanted to kick New Mexico and Gabby's collective butt!

Why do people even join class if they aren't going to take the time to prepare? Why do they voice when it is culturally rude and just plain wrong? WHY do I always end up in classes with these people?

I ended up talking (in ASL of course) to Henry about them and told him that I was frustrated because I am serious about ASL and the two of them really distract me from classwork. I also said that while I understood their being nervous, etc., that I had prepared despite being gone for a week.

Frustrating!

Okay - vent over! Have a fabulous Thursday!

Trisha

Voice: Doing okay. Not as good as it should be but . . . it has been a stressful week. I did get a massage from Susan yesterday. She is so wonderful!